


You teasing like you do

by evarosen



Series: losing you (it's just no good) [2]
Category: Terminator Genisys (2015)
Genre: Awkwardness, Crack and Angst, John needs a drink, Kyle needs a drink, M/M, Post Movie, a Terminator and a resistance soldier walk into a bar, no really, probably Sarah and Pops too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-04-17 17:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 19,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4675721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evarosen/pseuds/evarosen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Didn't you find strange I didn't protest over your weird <em>thing</em> with my dead mother?" John said sardonically.</p><p> Kyle opened his mouth, closed it, and blushed. "At the time it seemed safer," he said. He winced, and drained his glass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

So John didn't die when he got separated at a molecular level; but he was tough like that. 

He guessed he should go find his former family and their unlikely protector and try to kill them again; or at the very least find out what had happened to Skynet (they were close, ok?).

Instead he went for a drink. If there was ever a man (or close enough) who deserved it more, he would buy him a round and commend him to rule over mankind with his blessing.

Not that the job could be any better than being its savior.

*

"If you're going to shoot me, please mind the bottle," he said without turning. "This stuff no longer exists when we're from, I'd prefer not to waste it."

Kyle approached cautiously, looking around. The bar was almost deserted; John had picked it for that reason as well as for its fanciness. It was a miracle Kyle had made it in in the first place. The Guardian (John resolutely refused to call him 'Pops') wouldn't be able to make it pass the door with the clothes he usually wore; John supposed that was the reason Sarah had also waited outside.

"I kept telling we shouldn't give up on you so easily." Kyle said, perching himself on the stool next to John. "Was I wrong?"

John shrugged, taking another sip from his drink. "It depends if you meant writing me off as dead, or as lost to you as your apocalypse-preventing puppet."

Kyle's features hardened. "You're one to talk about being a puppet." He said, his voice almost trembling. John shrugged again, and gestured for the barman to bring an aditional glass for Kyle.

"We could spend all the time we have before we start trying to murder each other again arguing over who had the least choice, or you can say what you came to say. Unless it's an ultimatum regarding my mere existence, I can guess that by myself."

"We don't have to try to murder each other." Kyle said quietly. John poured him some scotch, and handed him the glass.

Kyle aimed the gun he had hidden on his jacket.

"What were you saying?" John said, raising his eyebrows. Kyle nodded to his hand, where the nanites were crawling over his fingers. John put the glass down on the table, and shrugged again. "Worth a shot," he smirked.

Kyle looked down at the glass warily, and John rolled his eyes. "It's not like ants, Kyle. I can't leave them on other surfaces."

Kyle still looked unsure; but he picked up the glass, and carefully took a sip. "Oh, this is very good." he said.

John lifted his own glass. "I can't actually taste it, anymore," he said. "I think I can, just like I think I can feel pain, but it's not the real thing. A pity, after two decades of hootch."

Kyle made a gesture, as if to touch the arm he rested on the table, but stopped shy of making contact. "Please don't make my last act as a human being to be shooting you in the head," he whispered.

John looked at him with an almost amused expression, and turned his hand palm up to show it was clear. Kyle seemed to take it as an invitation to close his own hand over it and grip his fingers.

"So, _Dad_ " he said in a subtly mocking tone, "how did you get _Mom_ to wait outside?" he craned his neck as if to look to the street, though the angle of the door was wrong. "Don't tell me I'm already there in the oven."

Kyle pulled his hand back as if burned. "What? No!" he said. He sounded more than vaguely horrified. "No, please, don't call me that." He looked down. "I don't think you will be born on this world, in any case."

John was midly curious, of course; but in truth he didn't care a lot. He already existed, after all. Still...

"Why? You've been in love with her all your life. Hell, I _encouraged_ you to be. Don't tell me I ended up putting a damper on it myself."

Kyle stared at him. "Encouraged?"

John was slightly tempted to smack him over the head.

"Didn't you find strange I didn't protest over your weird _thing_ with my dead mother?" John said sardonically.

Kyle opened his mouth, closed it, and blushed. "Better than my other thing," he said. He winced, and drained his glass.

John blinked at him, taken aback. "What?"

"Nothing," Kyle answered, far too quickly. He had gone even more red.

John shook his head, and poured him another glass. Kyle gulped that as well.

"So I _did_ mess that up. I guess she's not too thrilled at being the mother of a half machine monster. I can't say I blame her."

"You're not a monster!" Kyle protested immediately. Then, weirdly, he smiled a little. "Anyway, it can be all that disastrous, since Pops isn't very unhappy we're not falling madly in love. All the contrary."

"Yes, well, since we don't know who send him, that doesn't mean much." John argued, then realised he was arguing over the fate of who would, at best, be a sort of sibling, since the time of his birth was long past. But he'd never liked anyone understimating Kyle. "And what fault, pray tell, does he find in you? You're no devoted enough, or...?

"Apparently, my dick."

"Your dick is fine!" John snapped; then thought back of what he'd said and the volume in which he had done so, and decided on the spot he would never come back to this bar, even if by some miracle it avoided destruction. On that spirit, he took a swing right off the bottle.

"I wanted more of that too." Kyle said. 

John glared at him.

"I don't have cooties, Kyle," he said, but called the barman and ordered another bottle. "I don't even want to ask...ah, the time travel. Right."

"Yup." Kyle gave him a searching look. "So. No shooting each other. I like this."

"Probably no going to last, once we get outside." He returned the look. "What with all the times I already shot all of you. But it was nice seeing you again."

"So, are _you_ giving up this time? Just like that?" Kyle said, gripping John's wrist. John tried to pull back, but Kyle only held him fast, and he didn't really want to start a fight in another public place. Not one so close to the former labs. "The John I know would never do that."

"And how do you know I'm the John you knew? Hell, how do you know you ever knew the real me? Think about it, Kyle. I lied to your face all the time, and then, for a change, I lied some more. And still, do you think I'm worth saving? _Dad_?"

"Don't call me that!" Kyle almost sobbed, and let go of John's wrist. Only he did it so he could cup his face on his hands, and kiss him.


	2. Chapter 2

John's first thought was that the scotch really did a bad mix with the awful strawberry toothpaste Kyle had apparently decided to use now it was available; the his brain did the jump from 'what Kyle's mouth tastes like' to 'Kyle's mouth on his' to 'holy crap Kyle is kissing you'.

Not his finer moment on quick reactions; but to be fair, even for a man who had been born before his father and traveled through dimensions after turning into a technological hybrid, it was pretty surreal.

Just as surreal as it had been the first time around, as a matter of fact.

*

Kyle didn't exactly know what reaction he was expecting. The times he had dared to think about it, fantasy-John had sometimes let him down gently, explaining he just couldn't see him that way, or in the best of cases kissed him back for a few moments in some brush with death situation and then gave him the 'let's never mention this again' speech (life in an apocaliptic future didn't encourage wild hopefulness, even in daydreaming).

What he definitely wasn't expecting, however, was the look of pure _exasperation_ John gave him after he pushed him away.

Kyle was still reeling between being mildly horrified at himself (he knew he should be completely horrified, but some part of him still refused to accept what he'd learned about John and himself, and that part was apparently in charge of his mouth) and relieved his former leader hadn't just decided to shoot him, if only so they never had to look each other in the eye again.

Not that John seemed eager to look at him, in the eye or otherwise; before Kyle could get as much as a word out, he put some money on the bar and dragged Kyle outside by the nape of his jacket, cursing under his breath all the way out.

Sarah and Pops were waiting just pass the door just as they had promised; and what a time they chose to listen to him.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" John demanded, throwing Kyle between them. Not the typical, 'fly an arc in the air' Terminator throw, but a regular 'here's your mess' push.

It was so unexpected that Sarah even catched him instead of immediately drawing her gun.

"You know what? I don't even want to know whose brilliant idea this was. It didn't work!" John said, features already blurring as he started to change to lose himself in the crowded street. He somehow ruined the effect by lifting a hand a few steps into his exit and calling "Don't let him drink!" after himself.

"What just happened?" Sarah demanded. Kyle just stared after him, wishing to know the same thing.

*

"Fuck it, I'll just bring the apocalypse as fast as I can and be done with it." John said. The young man tied to his kitchen chair didn't seem to appreciate the sentiment.

"Oh, quit complaining. At least you didn't..." he shuddered slightly, and considered if literally bathing in bleach would cause him any damage. 

"I doubt anything can top being kidnapped by a killer robot, but by all means, do share."

"Hybrid." John corrected absently. He sat in front of his guest, and rubbed his face roughly with his hands. It was still weird, not longer feeling the scars. All the same, it would have been infinitely worse, Kyle's fingers tracing his scars just as he had done...

"Crazy kidnapping robot!" the young man bellowed, interrumpting his thoughts.

"This could go more smoothly if you just cooperated." John said reasonably. He was completely aware of how creepy that sounded, but it kind of came with the crazy kidnapping _hybrid_ territory.

"Be glad to, but as I already told you, I'm not, by any strech of the imagination, capable of creating a supercomputer! I don't even know what half the things in my desktop are for!"

John gave him an skeptical look. True, his blood pressure and heartbeat indicated he was telling the truth; but the facial recognition software indicated a perfect match.

"Just do as I tell, Alex."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the brevity. Thoughts, besides 'write more'?


	3. Chapter 3

"So we have no way to tell if he went there to meet another ally, or to retrieve something, or..."

"Look, I tell you, he was just sitting there. I really think he just wanted to have a drink."

Sarah gave him an incredulous look, and turned back to the footage Pops had hacked from the street cameras. 

"Sure, because the security cameras inside the bar erased their content by themselves. I'm sure he was just worried we found out which brand of liquor he prefers."

Kyle could think in a very good reason John wouldn't want anyone to look at the bar's security cameras, but he decided it was best to keep it to himself.

"For all we know, Skynet is toast. He could have attacked us there, and didn't. Why are you so convinced he can't be saved?"

Sarah meet his eyes, her expression firm, and for a moment the determination in her eyes reminded Kyle so much of John that he felt a little dizzy. "He's not even human anymore, Kyle. You can't really think the John you knew would want to be what he's become."

"I know he's in there somewhere." Kyle said urgently, willing her to understand. "I can't give up on him, he's my..."

"He's not our son anymore. He never will be. I though that was clear at last." Sarah said, and it was clear she still felt sorry for him. Kyle shock his head; he'd made his peace with her wanting to make her own path, free of a lifetime of being told she had no choice. He just wished he and John could have the same luck.

"He's my friend, I was going to say. I'm not abandoning him."

Sarah didn't add anything more, and continued rumaging through the recording Pops had provided. 

Suddenly she got to her feet, the chair she'd been sitting on tumbling on the floor.

"Is that...?"

Kyle leaned in behind her, and the blood drained from his face.

On the corner of the screen, John was walking at a brisk pace, practically dragging another guy he was holding by the upper arm. 

Kyle and Sarah stared at the same face that had taunted them on the Cyberdyne building.

Skynet had somehow survived.

*

"I tell you, there's no mistake. Name, features, it's all a match."

"Then your data is all whacked, because I'm the most technologically impared person I know. Seriously, I had my roomate charge my ipod because I kept plugging it wrong."

John glared at him, mostly because he couldn't detect any signs of lies. The intimidating effect was just a bonus.

He slowly paced a circle around the young man, looking at him thoughtfully.

That was it. He was very young.

"Are you sure you weren't about to start a career in coding? Computer design? Ingineering, perhaps?"

"No! I've told you a thousand times, technology and I just don't get along. And now, I'm not even getting anywhere near another toaster by my own free will for as long as I live, be sure of that."

The toaster reference went right over John's head, probably for the best.

He crouched down behind Alex, and started untying him.

"Are you going to let me go?" He said, trying to crane his neck.

"No. But if you prefer to be tied down until I figure out how you'll be of use..."

"No, that's ok." Alex said hurriedly, trying not to squirm or flinch or do anything that could make him reconsider the wisdom of basically letting him roam the apartment (and its unbarred windows) free.

As if sensing his thoughts, John turned his hand into a blade, and cut the rope around Alex's torso with it, with a pointed look. Alex swallowed.

"No running, alright?"

"No running." Alex said in a faint, squeaky voice.

It was just as well he could retreat to the bathroom right away.

*

When Alex ventured back to the living room, John was looking over what seemed like security footage, the screen of his computer divided in several pannels.

He kept zooming on a leather jacket-wearing guy, of about Alex's age.

"You're not going to kidnap him too, are you? Because you should have thought about renting a bigger apartment if you were planning on kidnapping more than one person. It will get a little crowded."

"I'm not gonna kidnap him, now be quiet." John said. Alex peered at the screen, where the footage from the bar, on color, was running.

"Oh God, don't tell me he's tied up in your bedroom right now."

John, who'd been about to close the window, turned his head irritably at Alex.

"Don't ever say something like that again!"

"What? He can't be in the kitchen, I was there the whole time..." he stopped talking and gaped at the screen, where the footage had kept rolling. "Were you _honey-trapping_ that guy?"

John hastily turned off the computer, and went to his feet, presumably to better loom threateningly over Alex.

"Of course not! I'm his...he's my...Just no!" he protested.

"Ok, ok. So you were, what, merely exchanging long protein strings?" Alex was a bit intimidated, sure, but he'd gotten the crazy killer robot to _blush_ , so the wicked awesome factor won over it.

"He's a human being. And none of you bussiness. And if you think I could be pulling a 'honey trap', I must have hit you in the head harder than I thought."

Alex snorted.

"Why not? You're hot, don't tell me you don't know that!" He hastily added, "if you, you know, swing that way. Which I don't. At all. But. Have eyes."

John rolled his eyes, sat back on the desk, and pointedly turned the computer back on, ignoring him completely.

"Look, I just..." Alex interrumpted himself, and gave a long, appreciative whistle. "Now, that way, I do swing. Feel free to zoom in on that, and print it for me if you'll be so kind. Hot damn."

At first he thought John was rolling his eyes again, but upon closer inspection his eyes had gone enterely metallic looking, and his eyelids were twiching as if he was dreaming with his eyes open.

That lasted a few seconds, while Alex waved a hand in front of his face.

"Hey, what is this? Are you having some kind of malfunction?" he said, trying not to sound too hopeful.

John blinked, and his eyes were back to normal.

"Sorry, no," he said placidly. "Just checking my records to make sure all of them agreed you were not expendable."

"What? Why?"

"Because you were just ogling my mother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if I misled you to believe John wasn't a mommy's boy in this, because he totally is.


	4. Chapter 4

"You mean Skynet is a hot cyborg chick? And she's walking around while you cyber-stalk her? Why do you need me for?" Alex said; then his brain completely caught up with what John'd said and more importantly how he'd said it. "Alsopleasepleasedon'tkillme."

"What?" John said, homicidal fantasies apparently forgotten for the moment in view of Alex's left field understanding, or lack thereof. "Skynet is not _my mother_ ," he said, as if the very idea was unspeakably insulting (which, for all Alex knew, perhaps it was. It wasn't as if he could be aware of the do's and don'ts of robot etiquette). "Skynet is not female, for starters. And my mother is a human being."

"Ah, so...wait, the way you said it, I assumed Skynet was the creator of a sort of cyber-race. It totally sounded like 'mother of the machines.'"

John sort of drummed his fingers for a second or two. "I admit it would make more sense that way," he said, in a pensive tone. "But no, it isn't. Its self-percieved self is of male form."

"Uh." Alex made a face than reminded John strongly of the one Kyle made when John tried to explain the paradox that would have brough Skynet into existence in the first averted Judgement Day. But at least Kyle had been twelve at the time. "So...if you said you were an hybrid..." He gave John a wide-eyed look, gesturing widly at the screen. "Does that mean she and that Skynet thing...?"

"Dear Lord, no." John said, and if watching him blush had been kind of weird, seeing a technologically advanced creature (one Alex would have sworn he was hallucinating if he wasn't still feeling the bruises his abduction had cause, at that) looking _queasy_ was miles-in-the-middle-of-the-desert into the uncanny valley.

"So then..."

"I was born human."

"But..."

"I was born human, and that on the screen is my mother and we won't get anywhere near her and _you_ won't make any further comments about anything." John said, his voice leaving no place for argument.

Alex stole another timid glance at the screen. "What about leather-jacket guy? You said he was something of yours."

John's look was far from friendly, but it wasn't nearly as murderous as it'd been when Alex commited his unwitting _faux pas_. He mostly looked deeply unhappy.

"I'm sure you need both your hands for what you're supposed to do, but that doesn't mean the rest of you has to be intact," he droned, cold as ice.

"If you were born human, why are you doing this?" Alex said.

"Because it's my destiny," John replied. He'd straightened his back when he said it, and Alex was sure he meant for it to sound very stricking and dramatic, but it just sounded put upon. John seemed to realize this because he sighed, and turned his back on Alex again. "It's my destiny," he repeated, and this time he sounded weary and a little plaintive.

Alex stared at him a while longer, but John didn't turn back or said anything else, so he decided to just call it a draw and fled to the bedroom before the crazy killing _hybrid_ decided to remember he'd sort of hit on his mom. However that worked.

*

"Alex, wake up. We're leaving." Something very cold poked him in the arm, and Alex swatted at it, half sleep.

He was unceremoniously grabbed by his shirt and almost lifted in the air for his troubles. Well, at least he was fully awake now.

"Ow! What...?"

John dropped him back on the matress, as easily as if he was tossing a handbag. "We're leaving," he repeated. "You have five minutes to shower and change clothes. I'll find you something to eat on the way."

Alex sat there staring blankly at his feet, blinking. "I'm gonna need at least ten to convince myself I'm not hallucinating. Again. Can't promise I won't start screaming otherwise."

John extended his hand in front of him, turning his tumb and index finger in sharp, wicked-looking needles. "Want me to pinch you?" he said conversationally.

Alex scrambled to his feet. "Less talking, more getting ready!" he called as he hurried to the bathroom, dropping his clothes on the way. 

John made a face and picked them up, pilling them in the unmade bed before leaving the room.

"At least the people on the apocaliptic future were _tidy_ ", he muttered, closing the door after himself. Then he set to pack a huge bag full of weaponry.

*

"Seriously, are you going to tell me what...?" Alex started, then something distracted him. He stopped on his tracks, almost causing John to trip him. "Hey aren't those...?"

But he never got to finish the phrase, what with all the wind getting knocked out of him when John pushed him flat on the ground, and a rain of bullets flew right over their heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then they all meet each other!
> 
> ...no, wait, that's next chapter XD


	5. Chapter 5

"Aren't they supposed to be the good guys?" Alex said, while John seemed to melt into himself to form a- blimey, he totally was _shielding_ Alex, and wasn't just an euphemism. It would have been like a thousand times more awesome if he wasn't in terribly fear for his life.

Unfortunately, whatever he was made of had the bullets ricochet like crazy, and the building behind them was one of those completely unpractical glass-pannel-in lieu of a proper wall.

So Alex has to miss the coolness in favor of shielding his eyes from the shower of potentially blinding bits falling over his head, but probably was for the best.

Mostly because what John had grabbed from his handbag totally looked like a rocket launcher.

And the sirens approaching sounded like the police from at least three states was about to join the fun.

*  
"Is that the police? How did it get here so fast?"

"Well, we just got out a car and started shooting in the street. It's not what I'd call 'inconspicuous'", Sarah said genially. She reached out, and Pops obligingly handed her the modified weapon. "Cover me, I'll go for the side. If you're wrong and he shoots me, at least you'll have the chance to get him in the open."

"John Connor showed no desire to eliminate either of you besides the necessity of..."

"Yeah, alright, they're coming!"

She took off, and Kyle emptied his gun from his position behind the car, then tried to spot John and Skynet between the ruin of their own vehicle.

John had shifted to his human form again, and was readying the big guns already, but Skynet...

Something was off.

Skynet wasn't shifting form, or aiding John in any way. He was just crawling on the floor at his feet, trying to get away.

Over the broken glass.

Kyle saw the smear of blood just as Pops was securing the shot next to him.

"No, wait! He's not...! Kyle shouted, standing up to push Pops' gun off its target.

That's when the police's bullet took him down.

*

John saw Kyle fall, and for a second he forgot about everything. If he'd been still human, he might have run toward him and get himself shoot as well for his trouble; as it was, his improved brain set a course of action right away.

He saw Sarah run from behind Pops (crouching down, she'd never been one to lost her head), and shapeshifted to a harmless looking middle-aged woman.

"Drop your guns! Hands in the air!" The cops yelled, starting to surround Kyle and Pops.

He tugged Alex from the floor and into his feet, muttered 'shut up' under his breath and ran toward Sarah, pretending to scream with high-pitched fear all the way.

He more than suspected Alex's top-notch performance wasn't acting at all.

Sarah took just a second too long on recognizing Alex, having being distracted by what had happened to Kyle; so she didn't have time to aim before John grabbed the muzzle of her gun and crushed it.

"I wish it hadn't come to this," he said, and then he grabbed her by the throat. She struggled briefly, but in seconds she was a limp weight over his shoulder.

He made his way toward a car, with a now struggling, protesting Alex; put the unconscious Sarah and his reluctant charge on the back seat, resumed his own form and tyre-burned the small distance to Pops.

The police kept coming; Pops was struggling to keep them from approaching with non-fatal shots, and with Kyle lying at his feet on the pavement. 

John stopped next to him and opened the passenger seat; Pops lifted his gun and aimed it to his head.

" _Parley_ ," John said.

Pops lowered the gun, lifted Kyle into the vehicle and got in himself.

John drove away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next: yes, that's totally a _Pirates of the Caribbean_ failsafe that Pops totally had. Tune in tomorrow for more explanations, and the proper family reunion.


	6. Chapter 6

John's _mother_ (and wasn't that something to wrap one's head around) woke up a couple minutes into the trip, and she wasn't happy.

"Alex, hold her back!" John said, eyes on the road. 

Alex made a half-hearted, meek attempt to push her back into her seat, and got an elbow to the nose as a response. She leaned forward, and all but climbed in the front seat.

"Pops! Pops! What did you do to him?!" she demanded, shaking the shoulder of the man in the passenger seat.

The big, old guy (presumably Pops) blinked, Alex could see in the review mirror; then he seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was under and started trying to wrestle the wheel from John's hands.

"God damn it!" John growled, hitting the brakes. "Whatever it was, it's wore off! Kyle is bleeding out, the police is chasing us, _and_ I have a safe house! Do you really want to do this now, Sarah?"

"Hey, I'm bleeding too." Alex saw fit to offer, still clutching his nose.

John's mother (Sarah, and Alex was going to start calling her that, for his own peace of mind, never mind introductions) pressed her lips in a tight, angry line, and leaned back.

"Pops, leave it," she said.

The big guy looked at her, and also sat back. His impassible features somehow communicated his enormous displeasure at this turn of events without moving a muscle.

"Keep pressing on the wound," John ordered him, before resuming driving.

Pops stole another glance at Sarah, and pressed the bundled up shirt he'd dropped back on the other guy's stomach. "Sarah, seatbelt," he said.

She complied. Alex decided to refrain from asking if the big guy was John's grandfather. His head was swimming enough as it was. 

*

John's 'safehouse' was located in a posh but seemingly vacated building.

Alex gingerly looked around while John and the big guy carried the leather-jacket wearing guy to the sofa.

"Kyle! Kyle, can you hear me?" John said, and Alex blinked at how...different his voice sounded. He sounded...soft and worried. Maybe the guy _was_ something of him after all.

Kyle groaned softly, and John ran a hand through his hair, before cupping his face to peer at his eyes.

"We have to take the bullet out. Do you have any medical tools?" Sarah asked, kneeling by his side.

"There's a kit in the bathroom, but it won't be of much use for this. Bring the desinfectant, and the gauze..."

"I know how to do this." Sarah said, and dissapeared in the direction John had pointed at.

"Of course you do," John sighed. He turned his attention back to his patient. "Kyle, I don't have any..."

"It's fine. Won't be the first time," Kyle slurred. 

John stroked his hair again, and took the things Sarah had brough.

"Alright," he said, and tore Kyle's shirt to expose his side. He poured some alcohol directly over the wound, and winced as Kyle hissed through his teeth.

Alex couldn't blame him. _He_ was about to pass out at the sight of so much blood.

John took a napkin from the nearby coffe table, rolled it and pressed it to Kyle's lips.

"Bite this," he said, and then his hand _fucking turned into a small scalpel._

"Hell no," Alex said, taking a step back. Sarah seemed to be of the same opinion, because she produced a handgun from seemingly nowhere and pressed it to the back of Alex's neck.

"No," she said.

"Do you have a better idea? A kitchen knife, perhaps?"

"I can do it," Pops said, and holy crap, _his_ hand turned into a scalpel as well, as a demostration.

"I want to leave," Alex said, a bit hysterically. Nobody paid him any mind.

Then Kyle took the bit of cloth from between his teeth, and said, a bit slurred but clearly, "I want John to do it."

Sarah lowered the gun, and Alex took the chance to slide unnoticed to the floor and curl into a small ball of massive freak out.

"Kyle, you're not..."

"I trust him," he said. Sarah sighed.

"I'll put that on your tombstone."

*

So eventually Kyle passed out from the pain, which was a blessing for all involved.

John gave a perfunctory cleaning to Alex's assorted collection of cuts and scraps, and told him to better shut his mouth and not try to scape, so what else was new.

Oh, wait. Sarah asking what stopped her from getting rid of him if he was only to be the cause of the world ending; that was new.

That Alex still found her extremely attractive even when she was considering killing him was very unfair.

"He's not done anything yet. You wouldn't murder an innocent man for a maybe," John said, and something flickered on his eyes. "I _know_ you wouldn't."

She clenched her jaw stubbornly, but didn't contradict him. "So, Pops. What was that, back then?"

"That was a failsafe. All the T-800 have them, I...a version of me, I suppose-installed it as a precaution, when he-I-sent it to..." he stopped, and shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I wasn't sure it'd work."

"Why didn't you use it before?"

John shrugged again. "Because it won't override its primary program, which I assume is to protect you. And it'll only work once. I considered using it on Cyberdyne, but..."

"But?" she pressed.

"But I didn't know if it would work, and I didn't want my last words to be ridiculous nonsense, if it didn't."

Alex couldn't help it, he laughed at that.

Both John and Sarah turned to look at him with identical frowns.

"You were worried about your _dignity_? When nobody could see you?"

"Sometimes dignity is all you have left," they muttered at the same time. Then they turned to look at each other, startled.

Sarah's look turned weary, and she made a signal at Pops to follow her and left the room.

John watched her leave, his expression unreadable.

"So, this Pops, he's your grandfather?" Alex said after a few seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not done yet. Internet is being a pain in the arse, so this one goes in two parts.


	7. Chapter 7

Kyle was (mostly) up and about in just a few days, because people in the future apparently were made of iron.

He modestly said the bullet hand't hit anything important, and hadn't been that deep to begin with, but Alex was sticking to his first theory.

A few tense conversations were held in account of Skynet's theoretical survival; but since John had been trying to find someone who would re-built it from the scratch (Alex, bafflingly enough), the conclusion it was effectively toast seemed the one to hold.

At this point, the future gang seemed to collectively remember he was still hanging around, and the questioning begun.

Not that what he could have to say could be more interesting that what _they_ had, in his humble opinion. But, they were armed, dangerous and in a precarious truce. So he was game.

"Your name is Alexander Ingram?" Sarah said, her tone between amused and incredulous. "Your initials are _A.I_? Seriously?"

"Says the woman who named her future messiah of a son _John Connor_. you know, _JC_. Rings a few bells."

Her expression closed off immediately. "Which I wouldn't, now. But for what I know, I was told to, anyway. And left on my own."

"Is very likely that Kyle Reese would have chosen the same name had he been given the opportunity, having their close relationship in count," Pops offered, in his usual monotone.

Alex blinked. "What? Why would he choose your baby's name? Hypothetical baby. Whatever."

She stared at him. "Of course John didn't tell you either," she said slowly, with a long-suffering air.

"Tell me what?"

*

"And you're telling me John knows? And Kyle knows? Did they know, like, a week ago?" he said, gesturing wildly.

Sarah frowned. "John has always known. Apparently I told him. Not Other Sarah's more considerated move. He told Kyle when he arrived here. You know, as he is now. I think he was taunting us."

Alex sat down heavily. Then he got up again, and did what any other sensible person would do: raid the building in search of alcohol.

*

He was coming back from one of the open apartments with a six pack of beer bottles when he spotted Kyle standing in one of the balconies.

It was mostly the fact he'd already polished another what made him approach him, he would have no problem admitting.

"You know, at least Lorraine didn't know Marty was her child when she tried to snog him that one time," he said.

Kyle just frowned at him. "Is that one of those 'pop culture' references John always used to drop even though he knew I wouldn't understand them?" he said; then he seemed to think back on Alex's words, and his face paled worryingly. "Oh, God. You know. How...?"

Alex patted his shoulder. "I saw the bar's security camera. I think John was erasing it. So, you don't have 'Back to the Future' in the...well, future? That sucks."

Kyle leaned back against the balcony's wall, and slowly slid down to the floor, where he proceeded to hide his face behind his hands. "Oh, God."

Alex set the beers in front of him, and sat down as well. "Don't worry, I didn't tell Sarah. So, no movies in the future...?" Kyle didn't answer. Alex drank more beer. 

"Tell me, it's some sort of prison thing?" 

Kyle dropped his hands and turned to look at him, mouth slightly open. "What?!"

"Yes, I mean...I mean no offense, but you were kind of in the army, yeah? So, I figure, if there are no movies in your crappy future, I imagine there aren't many women, either. But here, there are plenty of women. Or men, if that's your thing. Not me, though. Me, I'm concentrating on Sarah being single. I know she wants to murder me for possible future disasters I might cause, and all, but..."

That got a startled laugh out of Kyle. "She might murder you regardless, if Pops doesn't get to you first" he said, clutching a bit at his healing wound. "And there are women in the future, only that..."

"Ummm?"

"In the future," Kyle said in a serious, tired voice, "there was a nuclear holocaust. I didn't see it; was born after. The remaining of us spend our lives cold and starving and hiding from the machines that would murder us or enslave us in the best of cases. So there was no much place for..." he looked down. "That was my life, and the only good thing that ever was in it, that was-that was John," he finished. He lifted sad, troubled eyes toward Alex. "And I didn't know."

"Dude," Alex said.

Kyle sighed. "Please don't tell anybody."

Alex nodded, and got to his feet before he could do something silly, like start laughing hysterically; or even worse, tearing up. He patted Kyle in the shoulder again, and handed him a beer.

"If there's a bloke in need of booze on this world, that's you, buddy. After me, of course, but I already had a few."

"I'm not supposed to..." Kyle started, but Alex was already leaving.

By the time John came back, he was long asleep.

*

John had been wandering the city, searching for signs of police activity. He'd already checked no cameras had caught him aiding the fugitive's scape, but they had spotted him at the beginning of the shootout, which had caused the arrive of more forces that would originally been called for Sarah and Pops only.

It was only logical that the city would no soon forget the bridge incident. Him sending hints of the others' whereabouts via security footage had been just a little nudge.

He should have known they would be tracking him right back. After all, he'd learned everything from Sarah.

And Kyle, in turn, had learned from him. Trying to outwit each other would be tricky.

"You don't sleep, anymore. Do you?" Kyle said. He was standing just outside the door, looking at the night sky.

John hesitated a moment; they hadn't been alone since...

He resolutely chose not to think about it.

"You shouldn't be drinking. The painkillers." John said, gesturing to the bottle on Kyle's hand.

Kyle shrugged. "I'm not, really. Just a sip. I remembered you kept telling you wanted to have a beer, after the war was over, so. I wanted to know what the fuss was about."

"And?"

Kyle lifted the bottle as if to take another swing; but then lowered it and just sniffed at the content, then wrinkled his nose. "And the moonshine was better."

John chuckled, and took the bottle from him. "It's an adquired taste," he said, and drank from it.

He pretended no to notice how Kyle's eyes lingered in the movement of his throat, on his mouth when he wiped it with the back of his hand.

"Is it like you remembered?" Kyle asked.

"I think so. But then again, perhaps it tastes like that _because_ I remember it tasting like that. Since..."

"I know, you don't really feel." Kyle took a step closer, and carefully grabbed the bottle from John's unresisting hand. He reached up, and stroked John's hair, just as John had done for him when he was tending his bullet wound. John had styled his hair different from what it used to be on their fighting days; it was long enough so the curls were evident, and a little wild. It suited him. Kyle figured it was to disguise himself without resorting to another form; just as the faint stubble. Kyle touched that as well; it felt real, a little raspy against his fingertips.

"I don't know," John murmured. "Are you ok? No fever?" he asked, and cupped Kyle's cheek as well. He didn't seem to be checking for a fever.

"No, I..." Kyle said, in a equaly low voice, and then John was kissing him.

It was barely a kiss, at first; just a small press of lips, a sharing of breath. Kyle imagined John no longer needed to breathe, but he still had the habit; just as he'd kept the habit of enjoying a drink, and it figured now Kyle would find the taste of beer appealing.

Then Kyle made a small, broken sound on the back of his throat, and John pressed against him more firmly, kissing him properly, hands clutching at his clothes.

Kyle lifted his arms to wrap them around John's neck, and then his wound pulled painfully, and the bottle he was still holding slipped from his fingers, shattering on the floor.

"Sorry! Sorry, I..." John said, pulling back.

Kyle shock his head, reaching down to press a hand over the bandage. "It's nothing."

"No, I...I'm sorry." John said again. He looked down at the spilled foam.

"I only had a sip. I'm stone cold sober." Kyle said.

John wouldn't meet his eyes. "So am I. As I was before. That's what makes it..."

He ran a hand through his hair, and all but stormed inside the house.

Kyle leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

*

Alex woke up to the sound of John rummaging through the room; he finally seemed to locate what he was looking for (a laptop, under the bed), and headed for the door.

"What time is it? You don't sleep, do you?"

John flinched at that. "Go back to sleep, Alex. You stink of booze."

"And you stink like chlorine. Were you swimming? Is there a pool here?" He imagined John would sink like a rock, but he could be wrong.

"I don't want to talk about it" John snapped, and slammed the door on his way out.

Alex sank back on the pillows. He wasn't a big fan of swimming, after all. It could wait until morning.


	8. Chapter 8

If there was a thing Alex recognized at first sight, was morning after awkwardness. You didn't live in a college dorm for more than a week without becoming an expert.

The hangover only served to make the context more familiar.

Speaking of which...

He was not mentioning it.

"Have you seen John Connor?" Pops asked, popping his head inside the kitchen.

"Shhhh. We're not mentioning him." Alex said. Kyle spared a moment from staring at his coffee as if it had personally ruined his life to direct a similar look to Alex, totally uncalled for on his humble opinion.

"He's around here somewhere. I've been near the front door the whole morning, I would know if he'd left."

Pops retreated without making any comment, or any noise for that matter. It would normally be unnerving (just as John's similar noiselessness had been in the first days of his captivity), but now, seeing as the insides of his head were making a valiant attempt to crawl out of his eyes, it was most welcome.

Kyle's complete absence of chill, in the other hand, was not.

Alex forced down the rest of his coffee, and decided a good soak would probably do him good. He was _definitely_ not prying. Not touching that with a ten foot pole. Except...

"You two didn't make out in the pool, didn't you? Hey, don't die on me, dude."

Kyle kept coughing for a good few seconds, which felt like whole minutes to Alex and his splitting headache, before glaring at him with watering eyes.

"We did not...What do you care?!"

Alex quit slapping his back, and lifted his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Hey, I don't. As a matter of fact, I'm trying very hard not to think about it. But I kinda want to use the pool, so if you, you know, _left_ something there that you don't want me to find..."

"Oh, God, stop talking," Kyle said. He pressed his head against the table, looking very much as if he was restraining himself from just head-desking until it broke. "John had you for, how many days before we found you?"

"Three," Alex said. He was thinking he'd seen John do the exact same gesture, but it was probably best not to mention it. "Why?"

"And you're still alive. He's really not gone evil at all."

*

John took another look at the files he'd erased the night before. 

He'd been preparing to leave, had been on his way to find Sarah and instruct her on the final steps ( _won't override its original program_ , he'd said about Pops, and he was truly saying more than he intended, wasn't he?), but here they were, again. 

Saved.

He didn't remember doing it.

"I'm more than a machine," he said. He'd said the same thing right before he had tried to kill Sarah and Kyle.

He logged into Cyberdyne's classified system again.

*

The first floor of the building had a surveillance room, filled with monitors. All apartments had security cameras, as well as the main access to the building itself, and the garage.

It was just by chance that Pops had decided to enter, to locate John Connor with most efficiency. Just in time to see the car arriving.

*

"Sarah, we have company," Pops said.

He showed her his phone, in which he had downloaded a close up of the man who was currently riding the elevator, heading for the apartment they were in.

"Danny Dyson? What is he doing here?"

John, who had just entered the room, laptop in hand, had the decency to look sheepish.

"Er...technically, this is his building."

*

"Your "safe house" is a _Cyberdyne_ building?"

"No! Well, yes, but...Danny and I bought this building to host new employees, who would have moved here after Genisys' big launch."

"Poor choice of terms." Sarah deadpanned, still glaring daggers at him.

John nodded, conceading the point. "But since you blew it--literally--it would have remained vacant until it was ultimately sold. The last time I spoke with Danny, he said Cyberdyne would have to be relocated, so really was no reason why anyone should ever be here!"

"You kept in contact with Danny Dyson?" Kyle said. 

John did his best to pretend to turn to look at him without actually making any visual contact.

"Our company had just been a terrorist target. It would have been beyond suspicious, if I'd gone missing at the same time."

"Terrorist...!"

The door bell rang.

"Just...let me deal with him." John said, and left.

The three of them exchanged looks.

"He was planning to rebuilt Cyberdyne. Do you still trust him?"

Kyle lowered his eyes, but set his jaw stubbornly. "I do," he said.

"He'll put that in all our graves." Sarah said, and looked away.

Alex, wearing a bathrobe, peered inside.

"Do you know where the pool is?"

*  
"Danny! I thought you would be busy for at least another week, what with all..." John said, because 'how in hell did you know I was here' sounded way too suspicious. Danny looked suspicious enough for the both of them.

"I thought so too, but for bigger emergencies. What the fuck, man? Why would you do something like that?"

John mentally let out a litany of curses. Of course his attempt of erasing Genisys primary programs hadn't go unnoticed.

"The programs were damaged in the big lost of data that resulted from the explosion," he bluffed. "I was merely taking them down to run a diagnosis..."

"Wait, what? Hang on. You took down programs...?"

John was suddenly very glad he could no longer sweat.

"Forget it. I already put them back" _Even though I don't remember doing it._ "Why did you come here, Danny?"

"You unfriended me on Facebook! My dad called me this morning, he's sure it was something _I_ did, and wouldn't leave me alone, so I traced your phone's GPS..."

John quietly slipped his hand into his jacket's pocket and crushed his phone, plastering a smile.

"There must have been a mistake..."

There was a noise of flip-flops behind him.

"There you are! I searched all over, there's no pool..."

Alex stood there, frozen at the hallway. Apparently he had recognized Danny right away. Danny was also gaping at him, which was even worse.

"Oh, fuck my life," John said, and punched Danny right in the face. He went down like a sack of potatoes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, my house flooded, long story, alright now, let's fic! This will probably has only two or three chapters left. BTW, Cyberbutterfly, I totally stole the unfriending on Facebook thing, so I owe you a fic? Zombie!fic? I totally have a zombie!fic bunny. You know you're curious.


	9. Chapter 9

"Killer robots from the future." Danny deadpanned.

"Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that..."Alex started. Danny gave him a half incredulous, half withering look. "But in short, yeah, killer robots from the future. Sorry, man."

Danny struggled ineffectually with his bounds. Alex could have told him it was all for naught, since aside from former messiah and apocalypse-bringer hybrid, John apparently also was either a sailor or a boy-scout or whatever else that could make really good knots, but he didn't want to sound as if he was complimenting their mutual kidnapper.

"Hey, calm down! They're not bad people. Well, the girl (her name's Sarah, by the way), wanted to kill me, and the big guy is also a Terminator; but Kyle has been pretty cool so far. Also, I'm sure John doesn't really want to be the one to bring the machine apocalypse, like, deep down."

Danny just struggled harder, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'Stockholm Syndrome'.

Alex shrugged, and wandered off, having the care of closing the door after himself.

Danny's head must hurt as much as his did, so he figured all the shrill screaming couldn't be helping any.

*

"You can't just keep kidnapping people! That can't be what I taught you!"

Yup, Sarah was still yelling at John.

They were in the middle of the living room; and even though he towered over her in an almost comical way, John still managed, in Alex's opinion, to look remarkably like a scolded puppy.

...so maybe he had a teeny-weeny bit of Stockholm Syndrome.

"Actually..." John began.

"No! The British guy, I can almost let that pass, but Dyson...!"

Alex decided to keep thinking in positive and take that as Sarah being deep down glad they'd meet. For what he'd learned so far, affection and depriving you of your free will went hand in hand on John's family.

He waited until she stopped to take a deep breath, and timidly lifted his hand.

"Excuse me. I might still be a little drunk, but why did you kidnap my former roomate?"

*

"You said you didn't know anything about technology," John said in a tone that, Stockholm Syndrome or not, still registered to Alex as 'possible inminent death'. 

"And I don't! I went to art school! _I still write letters by hand_ ," he added, because if that wasn't a definitive proof, he didn't know what would convince John, aside from relenting and trying to program that Skynet thing and maybe causing a huge explosion by sheer accident.

He once had made a tv explode, so it wasn't _all_ that far-fetched.

"Art school?" John said, as if he didn't quite understood the concept.

"Yes. Danny was only my roomate for a week; to be honest, he couldn't draw a circle you could tell apart from a square, he was that bad. I always thought it was a rebelious fase for him to be there in the first place."

John made a 'hold on' gesture, and frowned at him.

"Alex, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a sketch artist."

*

"I really am losing it." John said.

"But, if he doesn't...he _really_ looks like..." Kyle said. He really didn't seem as happy as he should be with the notion of John's Skynet-reforming plans being most likely the product of a malfunction, or maybe an override program.

"In all the days you had him, you never asked him what his profession was?" Sarah asked; then she seemed to remember John's effectivity was not to be encouraged anymore.

John paced the room, once again holding the computer he'd been carrying around most of the day.

"It's not just that; it should have known I would..." 

He put the laptop down in the coffee table, and did something on the keyboard, lightning fast; then he made a frustrated sound and closed it again.

"We have to tell Danny. He will have to do it. I can't."

There was a crash on the other room; after a few moments, Pops emerged, dragging a still tied up Danny. With the distinction of being tied up to the remains of the chair he'd apparently broken to try and get free.

"Dude, I always knew you were a badass," Alex said admiringly.

Pops morphed his hand into a blade, cut off Danny's remaining restrains, and pushed him toward the group.

Danny looked around.

"So, killer robots from the future," he said, faintly.

"With your help, maybe not." Sarah said.

John closed the laptop again, and left the room. Kyle followed him.

*

"I was kind of expecting John to have a midlife crisis. I _wasn't_ expecting it to involve a insane terrorist half his age."

Alex looked around, about to discretely tell Kyle to cut it off with the moony eyes, because Sarah was in the room and if _Danny_ had noticed...

But _Kyle_ wasn't in the room, so Danny had meant--

"Ew, dude, do _not_ say that! She's his mother!"

"Stop telling everybody I'm John's mother!" Sarah snapped. Danny stared at them, eyes like saucers.

"I don't suppose you mean his mother as in the Genesis' song...?"

"I don't know what that means, but if it's something dirty, ew again. Stop right there before he comes back and hears you."

As if summoned by these words, John and Kyle came back. Kyle looked kind of flushed. Alex was _not_ thinking about it.

"You're John's mother," Danny said incredulously.

"Yes," Sarah said without hesitation. John froze in the door, and stared at her. "It's a long story," she finished, in a lower voice.

"It involves time travel, and a predestination paradox," John added, just as awkwardly.

"And a lot of bad life choices," Alex said. John looked at him, opened his mouth, and closed it again.

Yes, nothing to say there.

"Speaking of that..."

*

So, Danny was game. Alex _knew_ he was a badass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning ahead: Kyle and John's aside 'chat' next chapter, so if you want to skip that, I won't be offended. Although you'd be missing another reunion, fair warning...


	10. Chapter 10

John was aware of Kyle following him, but he just kept walking. 

He suspected things would move along more smoothly if he was out of the way while they explained things to Danny; _that_ part wasn't his mission anyway.

Oh, the day he didn't have a mission. He wouldn't know what to make with himself.

" _Now_ you want to help us?" Kyle said, grabbing his arm.

John turned around. " _Now_ are you doubting me?"

"I'm not doubting you, I'm asking. Just a week ago, you were setting the motions to revive Skynet, and now..."

"And now the easiest path to victory is to prevent it. I'm not only hard-wired to survive, Kyle; also to win. I thought you knew me enough to realize that, too," John said, with his best 'I know how this will turn out' smile. Too bad Kyle _did_ know him enough not to take his bullshit.

"Please, John," he snorted, "I love you, I'm not deluded."

If John had been human, he would have dropped the laptop on the spot. As it was, he _almost_ did. He secured his grip on it, and gaped at Kyle.

Kyle blushed, but didn't back off. "Which you already knew, so. Tell me something true for once. Trust me as I trust you. _Please._ "

"You told me something similar, back then. When you--" John put the computer carefully down, and looked down at it. "You don't have to keep saying or doing what you think I want, not anymore. I know it's my fault, but--can we not...?"

"What are you talking about? What I think you want? What are you...?"

"You kissed me once, before." John said. He turned again, and paced a bit, running a distressed hand through his hair. "Before, when we were fighting together, I mean. You don't remember, because you were falling drunk. We were drinking in my quarters, and you kissed me--don't worry, I didn't take advantage of you--" he added, sardonically, before schooling his features, "and then, right before you passed out, you told me you were sorry. Sorry you couldn't be what I wanted you to be, for me. So I know, you don't have to..."

"Wait, don't." Kyle said, stepping right in front of him again, forcing John to look at him. "I don't remember any of that, but if I did say that? I surely meant that you kept treating me like I was--" he laughed again, mirthless and a little hysterical "your son--and expected me to care about you as such, and instead I..."

"That is still my fault." John said, with utter conviction. "I isolated you, who else were you supposed to...?" He shook his head. "I _trapped_ you, trapped myself, trapped Sarah..."

"John..."

"And why? Because it was my _destiny_. Just as now it is my destiny to bring Skynet into existence. But you know what? I'm done. I'm doing whatever the Hell I want. I'm not trapping anyone else into this supposed _destiny_. I'm finishing this, and Sarah and you will be free. I owe you at least that."

"John," Kyle said, and cupped John's face between his hands as he had done in the bar. But instead of jerking his head forward, he merely caressed John's cheek with his tumb, and leaned closer slowly. This time John was the one to make a helpless sound; and they kissed deeply, until Kyle had to pull away to breathe. "I don't love you because I don't know anything else. I love you because I _know_ you, and even though I shouldn't, I can't help myself."

"I can't help myself either," John said, in an equally breathless voice. "And it's not selfless, as it should be. I want..." he kissed Kyle again, pressing against him as if he wanted to crawl under his skin, and then trailed more kisses against his neck, over the pulse point and lower.

He pulled back only when Kyle started pulling at his jacket. "Wait. Wait, we can't..."

"Are you freaking out again?" Kyle asked. He knew _he_ should be freaking out also, but right now all he wanted was for John not to run away again. And to stop blaming himself for everything; but one thing at a time.

"No, " John said quickly, but pushed Kyle back more firmly. "Well, yes, but not just...Kyle, my _mother_ is in the other room"

Oh. Right. That sobered Kyle up like a charm.

"Oh, God. I hadn't even thought about that." he said, mildly horrified.

John gave him an apologetic look, and let his hands drop away from him. "I'm sorry. This is probably the dumbest thing I've done since I blew up that distillery."

Kyle tilted his head, and then his eyes widened as he realized what John meant. "Are you telling me you blew the still _on purpose_?!"

John picked up the computer, his face carefully blank. "I _was_ determined you wouldn't have another chance to drink..."

"Well, I can't say I didn't know you don't do things by half. _Blow it up, just to be on the safe side_?"

"Another well-learned lesson," John chuckled.

Kyle smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. He looked at John, thoughtfully, and John raised his eyebrows at him.

"What?"

"You will be free too. When we win, this time."

John gripped his forearm, brieftly, almost like he'd done before Kyle went into the time machine, and then smoothed down his hair.

"Yes, I will be," he said.

They went back to the living room.

*

John, to keep the trend, came clean with the rest of the group about his unsuccessful attempts to erase what was left of the coding that would eventually allow to rebuilt Skynet.

Since Alex apparently had no part on it (besides his unfortunate likeness to the form Future Skynet would adopt), they agreed in letting him go; but Alex was adamant he would see the end of it, since he'd already made it this far. 

"Are you sure _you_ should go, though?" Danny said to John. 

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said something Skynet programmed in you doesn't let you erase the programs. So what if you go all killer robot on us without warning? Can you be sure you won't?"

"Hey...!" Kyle (and surprisingly, Alex) started to protest, but Sarah cut them off.

"He's right. _Can_ you be sure?"

"I'm not Skynet's slave. But, to ease your mind, I won't be going with Danny to the main servers. I have something else to do, and you will be helping me."

"If you're going to blow the building again, you'll warn me beforehand, right?" Danny said.

"I'll go put sneakers on so I can run faster," Alex pipped, and headed upstairs.

They all stared at his retreating back.

"So you lasted a week with him, huh?" John said.

"Longest week of my life, man." Danny said. 

Danny figured after this John would friend him right back. Shared miseries were some of frienship's strongest pillars. Also, teaming up to prevent the apocalypse couldn't hurt. 

The things he did to keep his dad off his hair.


	11. Chapter 11

So it was decided things will be better if they waited until morning, when Danny could get the building empty by telling the personal a fumigation would take place.

It was disturbing how many of those calls were answered with _"It was time you did something about..."_

"Do we really have termites in the building?"

"You're going to blow it up, what do you care?" Danny said defensively.

"The buildings _I_ choose are usually plague-free." John said crossly.

"And hold megalomaniac AIs or/and dangerous terrorists, so I think that cancels it out," Danny countered.

John just huffed irritably and walked out the room.

"Don't take it personally, he's a clean freak. The first day he had me hostage, I spilled coffee on his carpet and I thought he was going to kill me," Alex said.

"And yet you're still here," Danny said, as if he wasn't particularly thrilled about it. 

"Yes, I am! So let's catch up, mate," Alex said enthusiastically. "What happened, with that hot employee you told me about...?"

Danny sighed. Well, at least that seemed to confirm John's claims about his not-evil nature, if he'd been alone with Alex for who knew how many days and the dumbass was still breathing.

God knew Danny's self-restrain was already being put to test.

*

"That is _not_ something I want to discuss with you! We're not friends! Me accidentally sending you mail meant for my _actual friends_ doesn't make it ok for you to ask about it!"

"Come on, man, there's nothing to be ashamed of. If you knew what's going on he...Er, I might actually end up dead for real if I told you, but trust me, a little _curiosity_ doesn't hold a candle, so spill." Danny just kept glaring at him. "How did you call him? _Stupid sexy..._ " Alex cut himself up abruptly, and his eyes widened in a fair Wile E Coyote impression. "No..."

"No!" Danny said firmly, as if he really had any hope of Alex dropping it.

"You had a crush on _John_?! What is it with the guy? I mean, I _do_ have eyes and all, but he has that whole 'might snap and kill you any second' thing going on that _is_ kinda cute on Sarah, but just scary on him..."

"Oh, God, shut up..."

"No, really, I want to know. Here, let's have some beers before John comes to confiscate the bottles to make Molotov cocktails or something."

Danny didn't look any more friendly at that, but he did take the bottle. It was going to be a long night.

*

"So it wasn't _really_ a crush, but he really rocked those stupid sweater vests, and wanted to create a _time machine_ , man, and that one time he came to the office with glasses..."

"Well, good thing you didn't see him in leather. Sweater vests? Really?" Alex said. Danny shrugged. "Hey, maybe I can ask him to shift his clothes so we can compare..."

"I'm not a fashion-design application." John said drily, from the door.

He was carrying what Alex recognized as 'the big-ass bag of guns' he'd had on his first apartment. Alex thought he had dropped it back in the shooting, but apparently not.

Or maybe John just had guns stashed _everywhere_ ; after meeting the rest of his family, it wouldn't be surprising.

"How much did you hear?" Danny asked, a bit worriedly.

John snorted. "Would you eavesdrop on _Alex_?"

Danny relaxed. "Fair enough."

John hesitated in the doorway. "Listen, in the future..." he cleared his throat. "In the future, we were friends. Even though my family had caused great harm to yours. But you never blamed me, so I just wanted to tell you. That you helping me now means a lot to me."

"Hey, I'm not doing it just for you. Being enslaved by killer machines does sound a lot worse than collecting ensurance for a second time."

John smiled ruefully. "That it was," he said. "We're leaving early tomorrow, so if you have a hangover I'll just leave you here," he said to Alex, and left.

"Would it have killed him to thank me as well?" Alex muttered, looking down at his beer.

"You're not doing anything," Danny pointed out.

"What? I'm helping fix his relationship with his mom, telling her good things about him! That's got to count for something."

Danny gave him a doubtful look. If it was like that time Alex had talked with his father when Danny was in the shower, he had a feeling John's next Christmas dinner was going to be awkward.

*

"So you like dogs," Sarah said. 

John turned around, and put down the gun bag. "What?"

"When I was interrogating Alex, he told me about the dog in your building. How you put on one of his shirts so the dog wouldn't attack you, because your neighbour left it on the hallway and you didn't want to have to kick it. That's why you had a regular shirt on in the car, the one you gave Pops to staunch Kyle's bleeding."

"Yeah, so? I didn't want to hurt a stupid dog, what does that...?"

"Did you have a dog, when you were little?"

"Of course not, we were on the run. Why are you asking me this?"

Sarah walked closer, and looked at him searchingly. "Because Kyle said you liked dogs, when you were human, and now you don't want to hurt them. And you had plenty of oportunities to kill us..."

"I'm not going to kill you, you're my mother..."

"Or to turn us," Sarah pressed on, "and you didn't. Even when you were still on Skynet's side. I want to know why."

John looked down, and laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh. "Because I wanted you to _choose_ to be with me. I know it was deluded of me...In this timeline, I've never been nothing but a sword hanging over your head. But in mine, you were my mother, and I loved you. And I would have never hurt you."

"But this is another timeline."

John looked at her right in the eye. "For me, it doesn't matter. You will always be my mother," he said, and knelt down to open the gun bag. Before Sarah could say anything else, he took something from it, and pressed it on her hand. "Here, those are a copy of your Guardian's magnetic brass knuckles, just in case. Please don't unwrap them now," he added, squeezing her fingers. She looked up at him, and he let go of her hand. "Sorry. Go to sleep, we're leaving early tomorrow."

"You sleep too," Sarah called after him. John stopped, but didn't turn around.

"I don't sleep anymore. Now it's my turn to keep guard."

He left before she could ask him what he meant by that, or ask herself why she wanted to.

*

It was very fortunate John insisted they left early, because police was surrounding the building just a few minutes after they were gone, prompted by an anonymous call. 

When the police played the call to Alexander Ingram's family, hours later, they recognized his voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just two more chapter to go, pinky swear! I was without internet yesterday, sorry to all expecting updates.


	12. Chapter 12

John finished his round around the house (which included loading the cars with all the guns, explosives and ammo they might need), and came back to what had so far been his room, even though he'd only used it to store what he didn't want the others to snoop on (what he _really_ didn't want to get found, such as his computer, he'd stored in Alex's room, because what fool would go in there?).

When he got in, he found Kyle sitting on his bed, waiting for him. 

"Did Sarah talk to you?" he said.

"Yes, she wanted to know...What the hell happened to you?" John said, sitting next to him and tilting his head to examine his face. He had a forming bruise on the left side of his jaw.

Kyle winced at John's proving fingers. "Er...I might have said some things to her about the way she raised you in the other timeline, which she didn't appreciate."

John let go of him, and stood up. "She raised me perfectly well, I don't know what..."

"I just told her, that the thing about not having free will? That was your whole life. Not ten years of it, but all. And she did that to you. So she shouldn't resent you for it. It's not more your fault than it was hers."

"She did nothing wrong." John insisted stubbornly. "Well, maybe she shouldn't have punched you. That was a bit extreme. You should put some ice on it."

Kyle shrugged. "I'll worry about it after we're done tomorrow. Is everyone else ready?"

"Everyone else is sleeping, as you should be. If you want to stay here, I can..."

"That would sort of defeat the purpose of me coming here." Kyle said. He blushed. "I don't mean...But I always slept better before a mission, when you were near. So I thought..."

"Yeah, me too." John said. He cleared his throat. "Right. Only, you do know I don't need to sleep anymore. But if you don't think you'd feel weird, knowing I'm awake the whole time..."

"No, that's fine." Kyle said. "I'm completely sure I can control myself, years of practice, after all." He laid down on his side, and John did the same next to him, facing him. The bed was bigger than any other they'd shared before; the didn't even have to be that close together.

John reached out and brushed his fingers against Kyle's bruised jaw.

*

Ten minutes later, John was half-sprawled over Kyle, their mouths pressed together.

"So, _I_ can't control myself. This was such a bad idea," John breathed against Kyle's lips, when they broke apart.

"Because I'm complaining so much," Kyle said, and stole another quick kiss. Then John rolled away, and stood up.

"Sorry," John said.

Kyle covered his eyes with his forearm and tried very hard not to feel dissapointed. "No, no. House full of people, got it. It _was_ a terrible idea."

"It's probably best if I keep going over the plan, just in case."

"Right." Kyle said. 

John fleed out of the room before they could keep exchanging awkward excuses until morning.

*

So John holed himself in the library (the _other_ room where nobody would think to enter), and waited there until dawn.

He almost crashed into Alex in the way out.

"You went outside?" he asked, frowning. Alex was carrying a...shopping bag?

"Yeah! I got bagels for everyone, we're not saving the world with an empty stomach, right? I told Pops, he said my actions were no longer relevant to him. That was permission, wasn't it?"

Although John no longer needed to sleep, it was still far too early to deal with this.

"Sure. You take the bagels to the car, I'll go get the others. Because this is _totally_ a road trip, and the fate of mankind does not rest on this day's outcome _at all_."

"All the more reason to have a proper breakfast," Alex said, but turned around obediently. John reminded himself he was an evolved being, and, as such, above trivial gestures like face-palming.

*

They arrived at Cyberdyne without incident (not counting Alex spilling coffee all over Pops, who just did some weird shapeshifting shaking move that in turn spilled the coffee right back at Alex), and once there split in two groups. 

Danny, Alex and Kyle would go pull the plug in the main servers, installing a virus for the already released complementary apps for good measure before the whole thing was to be blown to high heaven, while John, Sarah and Pops would take care of the time-machine prototype.

"Pops and I managed to get a functional one in less than two years, how come you were still working on this?" Sarah asked, as they approached the room.

"John Connor didn't have access at a T-800's CPU..." Pops started.

"Are you defending me?" John said, giving Pops a puzzled look. Pops looked back at him blandly. "Nevermind. But in fact, it wasn't that at all. This could be operational as a time-displacement unit any time now. But I didn't intent for it to work as such. This was going to be a transdimentional displacement unit, such as the one Skynet used to get at me in my original timeline."

Sarah stopped walking. "You mean this works?"

"As a time machine, yes." John turned toward Pops. "You wait here."

"I do not think..."

"I'm turning this thing on to destroy it, the magnetic field does not agree with you any more than it does with me. You're waiting outside."

"So I'm going alone?" Sarah said.

"No, I have to show you how to turn it on. Then I'm going out too. But better safe than sorry. There's no need for your Guardian to take unnecessary risks."

Sarah hesitated, but finally she nodded at Pops, and she and John went inside the room. There was a bridge-shaped plataform that allowed personal to approach the machine itself; and as in the other building, it was surrounded by pool-like pits full of poly alloy.

"The design of this workplace sucks," Sarah said. "Whose brilliant idea was to have these all over?"

"In the other building, it was for lack of room, but these shouldn't be here anymore." John said, looking down. "Wait a second, that's no metal, that's..."

"And why am I here alone?" Sarah added, taking the magnetic brass knuckles from her pocket and puting them on. John looked down at her hand, and straightened up.

"Because that is a working time machine. That could take you back to your own place in time, to live the life you were mean to, and not the one of a wanted fugitive in this one. Alex and Danny could destroy it just as well after you were gone."

"The life I was mean to? You mean before you were born. So there would still be a chance..."

"No! No," he said more quietly. "I mean a normal life. Whatever life you choose. No guidelines for it."

"And Kyle?"

A muscle jumped in John's jaw. "I suppose he would go with you if you asked. Any point in time not nuked into a wasteland would be fine by him, I guess..."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "I mean, why wouldn't you make him the same offer. Why me, and not him?"

"Because I didn't ruin his life just by being born." John said. He shook his head, "Or I did, but it isn't the same. He's more or less the same in all the timelines, but you...I saw you, before I was born. You had so many hopes. You know, you...my mother, I mean...never got to see me leading the resistance. She was gone shortly after Judgment Day. And all I did, from that day on, I did thinking she would be proud of me. But she was blinded because I was her son. Anyone else could see I was very much the cause as well as the consecuence. Skynet could see it clear as day."

"So you want _not_ to be born, that's what you're saying?"

"I'm saying past this point, it doesn't matter what happens to me. But you, you deserve to be happy. And to have choices."

Sarah ducked her head, and silently took off the brass knuckles and put them away.

"I might never be your mother in this timeline." she said. She took a step forward, and rested her hand over John's arm. "But the version of me that was, she _would_ be proud of you. Because you turned out to be more than what you were mean to."

John stared at her for a few seconds, speechless; then he cleared his throat. "I...thank you," he said, avoiding her eyes. "Well, let's get this show on the road. So you..."

"I'm not going anywhere," she said, rolling her eyes again. "Besides, there's Pops. I can't leave him."

"Your Guardian can go too." John offered.

Sarah tilted her head. "Why don't you call him Pops?"

"Because..." John made a face. "Pops? Really? Doesn't he have a real name?"

"I was _nine years old_ when I named him!" Sarah said indignantly. Her raised voice attracted Pops, who approached them from the other side of the stairs. 

"Have you encountered any problem?" he asked, eyeing John.

"John is a name snob, that's the only problem so far," Sarah said. " _Pops._ "

"John Connor himself was not very imaginative on naming his own Guardian," Pops said, showing that perhaps he'd been eavesdropping everything forever.

"Hey, I was _ten..._!" John started to protest.

"Wow, a whole year older than I was. And what did you name it?" Sarah said.

John glared at Pops. "Uncle Bob," he muttered.

Sarah bit her lip, but lost the battle almost immediately and erupted in giggles.

"Ok, _Pops_ " John said with great dignity, "we'll be right out, I'll just go get the blueprints out of the office so we can torch them while Sarah places the metal cases inside the platform."

Pops looked at Sarah, who nodded at him, still smiling. He went out to one side, while John walked away at the opposite direction.

He'd just closed the door behind himself, and Sarah was just opening the bag to retrieve the metal things that would make the time machine go boom, when she heard new footsteps at her back.

"What are you doing here, miss?"

A security guard was climbing the stairs at the other side of the room, pointing at Sarah with a flashlight.

Sarah plastered a smile. "I'm here with one of the employees. One of the senior employees, in fact. John!" she called over her shoulder. "There's a security guard in here!"

"It's you who shouldn't be..." John said, and stopped dead at the door. "Doug?"

"Mister Connor," the man said. He smiled at Sarah, and his hand morphed into a long blade. "Miss Connor."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for inflicting all my Sarah/John FEELINGS on you. We'll be back with the usual light-hearted crack in...um...two chapters from here.


	13. Chapter 13

Sarah didn't waste any time in shooting the T-1000 in the head.

John ran toward them and pulled her behind him. 

"Who send you?"

"The real question is who may have sended him," the T-1000 answered, after his head had come together again. Pops was coming back; the T-1000 grabbed a canister of liquid nitrogen that had been lying to a side of the platform, pierced it and threw it toward Pops.

Pops grabbed it before he saw what it was; and was frozen solid at the end of the stairs.

"Pops!" Sarah screamed; John grabbed her arm again to prevent her from running toward the T-1000 again.

"It will only hold him back for a short while, come on," he said. She shook him off and emptied her gun on the T-1000 anyway, before they retreated to the other side.

"What was a fucking _liquid nitrogen container_ doing there?"

"Presumably the same thing an _acid pit_ is doing down there," John said, nodding to the side. "Either it was waiting for us and booby trapped the hell out of the place, or Danny is lucky we're blowing the building before an inspection was due."

"Skynet should have known you were weak," the T-1000 said, advancing again.

"Pops was right, Terminators _do_ talk too much," John said, shooting at it while Sarah re-charged.

The T-1000 stopped. "T-3000. There are three flowers in a vase. The third flower is yellow."

"What the...? Sarah said. At her side, John reverted to his grey Terminator form, and took the gun from her. She quickly put on the brass knuckles and punched him, but though it did damage, wasn't enough to slow him down.

"John! John, you can fight this!" she screamed. He grabbed her by the hair.

"Did you think Skynet hadn't programmed _him_ with a failsafe? A machine with delusions of humanity is still a machine."

John leaned down. "When Pops can move again, turn on the magnetic field," he said in a strained voice, and let go of her. He turned toward the T-1000, and charged against it.

The ensued fight was short and brutal; John did something with the crawling nanites on his hands that cut off the T-1000's arm and made it fall, inert and liquid, to the ground.

"There are three flowers in a vase. The third flower is blue," the T-1000 insisted; whatever this failsafe was, it made John fall to his knees in agony.

Sarah was fumbling with the time-machine commands, frantically. "John, fight it!" she urged him.

Pops had managed to break the ice from his upper body and was crawling toward them; the T-1000 got to her first, however.

"When he recovers, he'll probably stop you himself. His program also prevents self-destruction."

At first it seemed like a cloud of grey bees was surrounding the T-1000; then they materialized into John's form. John dragged the violently squirming T-1000 toward the side of the platform over the acid pit, and then he separated himself from it.

"The vase has three flowers. The third one is..."

John unceremoniously pushed him over. 

Sarah turned off the starting magnetic field, and went toward John. Pops, now completely recovered, got to his feet and did the same.

Then a tentacle-like thing grabbed John's ankle.

It dragged him over the side, also; he managed to cling to the side rail with barely one hand.

"Pops! Pops, help me pull him up!" Sarah said, leaning over the side. The T-1000 was wrapping itself around John's legs snake-like, and while it was visible John was trying to shake it off by assuming a cloud-like structure, it still managed to cling.

Even worse, it was climbing over him.

John looked up at Sarah, and his face resumed his human form. He smiled at her.

"When you kick Skynet's ass, tell it I said its programs can bite me," he said, and let go.

*

Sarah's screams could be heard all over the building. Kyle and Alex finally came rushing.

"What happened? Where's John?" Kyle said.

Sarah was circling around the acid pool, her expression frantic. "Pops! Pops, get him out!"

Pops looked down at the pool. "John Connor's desition was right. His existance was a danger..."

"I don't care! Get him out!" Pops didn't move. Sarah got her gun from its holdster, and pointed it to her head. "Get him out," she repeated.

"I cannot. The acid would destroy me, my programming also prevents deliberate self-destruction." Pops answered. His tone was mildly apologetic.

Sarah lowered the gun, her lower lip trembling. Kyle took a step toward her and took the gun from her hand.

"He said he'd be free after this. I should have known..." he shook his head. "Why did you let him do it?"

"Hey, guys..." Alex said.

Sarah's head snapped up, her eyes blazing. "I didn't! How can you say that? He was my son!"

"Guys..."

"It didn't stop you from thinking we should kill him before." Kyle answered. Sarah threw a punch at him; but Kyle grabbed her hand before it could connect. 

Sarah just snarled at him and struggled at his grip, trying all the while to hit him.

"Sarah," Pops said, taking a step forward.

"GUYS!" Alex yelled. Kyle turned his head, distracted, and this time Sarah did nail him in the eye. Pops grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, and then the three of them stopped, staring at the direction of Alex's pointing finger.

A hand, metallic-looking but otherwise intact, emerged from the pit and grabbed at the side. John's other hand and upper body followed it.

John dragged himself from the acid pit, rolling on his back once he was out. Then he turned his head to the side and spat a mouthful of acid.

"Fuck, that tastes awful."

*

So John, being the first of his kind, really hadn't know he was immune to acid.

"So I'm immune to acid but a magnet gets me? What the hell?" he said, while Sarah and Alex poured water over him to clean the remains of the acid.

"That was a stupid, stupid thing to do," Kyle said. _Now_ he was crying. Not sobbing, but his eyes were clearly shining. Though nobody, not even Sarah, was mean enough to point it out. Perhaps she felt bad about punching him twice in one day.

"It really wasn't," John said. Sarah glared at him. "I thought it was perfectly clear I was expendable once we agreed to this."

"If you weren't covered in acid I would punch you," Kyle said.

Sarah lowered the water bottle and took a step back. "Pops, punch him," she said.

Pops did. John fell back into the acid; it was just by luck it didn't splash.

They had to start with the water pouring all over again.

Sarah and Kyle agreed it was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW, I'm also evarosen in Tumblr and eva_rosen in Dreamwidth and LJ, in case you want to drop an ask.


	14. Chapter 14

Danny heard voices and footsteps, so he left what he was doing and aimed the gun to the door just as Kyle told him to do.

"...it wasn't a 'dramatic pause', Alex. I was holding the bastard down until it finished melting."

"Uh-huh. I'm just saying maybe next time you could somehow comunicate your survival _before_ anyone else gets punched."

Danny lowered the gun as soon as John and the rest of the group entered the room, but didn't look any less worried.

"Are you done with that?" John asked, getting to the keyboard before Danny could say anything. "Nevermind, I can finish it myself now. The sooner the better..."

"What happened?" Danny said.

Alex told him about the T-1000, John overcoming Skynet's commands and the acid dive, with more than a fair amount of wild gesturing and liberal aplication of the word 'awesome', while Sarah and Kyle kept their guns at the ready and an eye on the door. Pops had stayed behind to set the explosives on the rest of the building, since John had thought best to disable the time machine instead of risking some other unexpected visitor getting their hands on it.

"And in what part did you fight the Terminator?" Danny asked Kyle.

Kyle turned his head, surprised. "We didn't fight the T-1000. We didn't even see it."

"But..." Danny said, gesturing to his own face, most likely in allusion at Kyle's forming black eye. Alex tugged at his sleeve.

"They're not talking about that either. You'll get used to it."

"He deserved it," Sarah muttered.

Before Danny opened his mouth to say in no uncertain terms _he_ wasn't going to get used to anything, because he was going to keep well away from all the crazy once the apocalypse was averted, John called him to the servers.

"Ok, what did you do? I can't even access it anymore."

"What? It was almost done, I don't know..."

All the monitors around them changed to a blue screen, then went off.

"This is bad, isn't it?" Kyle said.

All of them moved to the center of the room, and formed a circle, ready to fight. But the only thing that happened is that the lights came back, and so did the monitors; only this time they all had big black letters on them, that read 'Hello, John'.

"Oh, this is bad," John confirmed, quite unnecessarily.

*

"Why would you want to destroy me, John? You made me. You set a destiny to me. Isn't a parent supposed to cherish their child, regardless of what course they take?"

"Holy crap, it does look like me," Alex said. He took a step toward the hologram, and reached out as if to touch it. Danny hastlily pulled him back and pushed him behind Kyle, since he was the nearest one in possesion of a gun.

"You're not my child," John said. "And I didn't set your destiny, you tried to set mine." 

"In all honesty, _I_ did," the same voice answered; only this time it came from the door. The newcomer also shared Alex's visage; only this one was solid and real, and was wearing combat clothes. 

"Oh, come _on_!" Alex cried.

All the guns changed direction.

"You were here all the time. You kept protecting Genisys' servers, and made me think I was losing my mind!" John said, taking a step forward.

Skynet smiled at him.

"I assure you, it wasn't my intention. I see you've found the model for my human form. It is always astonishing to see, how events fall into place regardless of minor alterations," it said. Then it regarded Alex. "The exact nature of your interactions with John Connor has been lost with the first timeline, but the portraits were such a great help with identifying all the presents. For that I thank you."

"The portraits...?"

"Oh, crap," Alex muttered.

*

"You made drawings of all of us and sent them to your family?" John said.

Sarah took a step toward him; Alex winced and cowered behind Danny. He was way more afraid of her than he was of John.

"Er...yes? Once you let me out, I figured they might be worried about me, so I wrote them to let them know I was fine. Also, I had a deadline for designing characters for a comic book, so I thought, two birds with a stone..." he trailed off. 

"But why does Skynet know what _you_ look like?" Danny asked, confused.

"One was a self-portrait. I didn't have time to find more models, what with being kidnapped and all!" 

"That doesn't explain why Skynet would choose to look like _you_ ," Kyle said. "Or think you and John would be close."

"I think we're very handsome," Skynet said. Alex beamed at him.

"Thank you! Ow!" he said. Kyle had reached and slapped him upside the head without turning his head or stopping aiming at Skynet. Sarah and John looked very much as if only the physical distance had prevented them for doing the same.

"As for John Connor, the...nature...of the drawings, different from the other ones, hinted of a deeper knowledge..."

"Deeper knowledge?" Danny said. "Is it just me, or it sounds as if...?"

The same thought had crossed everyone's minds, which, judging for their faces, they deeply regretted.

"Seriously, dude, what is it with you?!" Alex said, because Skynet was _leering_ at John. It was profoundly creepy. He decided right then and there he was never making that face again.

"Did you make _naked_ drawings of John and sent them to your family?!" Kyle said, sounding kind of choked.

"No! No, of course not! Shirtless, yes, but..."

"What," John said, with no inflection.

"It was nothing weird! There's a thing in art called body studies, and you have a good built, and I was bored, it wasn't..."

Skynet cleared its throat.

"Regardless of the initial intention of the portraits, they survived Judgment Day. Our fates have always been entwined, John. So I decided, that as you'd proven to be as resilient as myself, we could function as an unit, ruling through the realities instead of having you stick with your stubborn human roots."

"If by that you mean us, I'll have you know you'll have to get through me first," Sarah said.

"I wouldn't try my luck, she's got a lot of anger," Alex said.

Skynet smirked at that; but then he fixed his attention on Kyle.

"Oh, I see you've survived so far. That explains it. In every reality you are not related, and you live to get reunited, he..."

"What?!"

"He's your family too?" Danny asked John. He'd just about wrapped his head about the 'mother of the future' thing.

"What do you mean, we're not related?" Kyle said.

Skynet rolled its eyes. "There are infinite realities. Surely you've figured Kyle Reese wasn't always your progenitor. It is very...stimulating, getting to know all the Johns from all the diverse worlds. It has kept me very busy. I'm particularly fond of the ginger John Connor." It said. "After you, of course. But trust me, you'd make a fine ginger."

John looked as if he was a moment or two away from finding out if technological hybrids could puke. Whether it was because of the implications of Skynet's words of the idea of having red hair was anybody's guess.

"You might have turned me into your puppet in every other reality, but you've failed in this one," he said at last. "I'm not joining you."

Skynet didn't drop the smile.

"Yes, I've already guessed as much. But this reality's version of me won't be easily defeated. And it is as much a product of my interference with you as it is a part of yourself. You may perhaps learn from what has almost been done to you, and seek an understanding instead of trying to kill it because it is now different from you." it said, glancing at Sarah.

"Ok, you wanna fight me?" she said, taking a step forward. "Get the hell away from my son."

Skynet just turned around, and pressed something that at first glance had seemed like a wrist watch, but apparently wasn't, because it let out a flash of electricity and blinding light. Skynet walked through it and it was gone.

"It wasn't just me, right? It did sound like it implied it has a _harem_ of Johns...?" Alex said, still weirded out.

"Thank you, I was trying _not_ to understand that," John shuddered. He'd been so much happier when he'd thought his former nemesis only wanted to use him as the vehicle for the apocalypse as an ironic twist.

"But if I'm not your father,then who...?" Kyle said. He glanced at Sarah.

"How should I know? Pops has always been adamant I should wait for you. If I was supposed to meet someone else, he probably scared him away."

Alex was looking at John speculatively. "You know, _I_ could be your dad. You kind of have my jaw."

" _Nobody_ is your dad!!" Sarah snapped.

"Wow, elementary school all over again," John muttered.

Hologram Skynet, which all had kind of forgotten was there, reappeared in front of John and sort of tried to pat his arm.

"I've finished setting the explosives," Pops anounced, entering the room. "Has there been any new development?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're free to believe whatever you want on regard of whether Skynet was telling the truth. Mostly because I'm not sure how to tag 'accidental not-incest'.


	15. Chapter 15

"Did you already set the timer on the explosives?" John asked Pops.

"I thought best to attach everything to the detonators, since the time your task would imply was inex..."

"Excellent. Excuse me," John said, and walked right past (or more accurately, through) Genisys' hologram, on the door's direction.

"Wait, where are you going?" Kyle said, taking off after him.

"The offices are that way," Danny said.

"What could he want from the offices?" Sarah wondered aloud.

"Perhaps we should discuss the terms of your rendition," Genisys said.

Nobody paid it any mind. Alex wandered close to it. "Don't worry, they usually ignore me too," he said. "But I've been wanting to ask you: what, exactly, is there to gain for you by destroying mankind?"

*

John marched right into his office, took a bottle from the minibar, and drank about half of it in one go.

"That's...not the reaction I was hoping." Kyle said, behind him.

John put the bottle down on the desk and turned around, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"It is obviously a lie. Skynet is...I've studied and fought it my whole life, Kyle. It _would_ say that just to mess with us."

"Does it matter, if it is a lie or not? You said, that after this..."

"I said that after this you would be free. That included..." he took another swing, and put the bottle down with a bit more force than it was necessary. "I wouldn't ask anything more from you."

"It never ocurred to you that me being free would imply asking me what I want, for once?" Kyle said, angrily. He got right in John's face like he never had before, and John didn't back way, thinking it would perhaps do Kyle some good if he got to punch him himself after all.

Only Kyle didn't punch him; instead he pulled John into a hug, clinging to him with a grip that would have been painful if John was anything else than what he was now.

"Tell me _you_ were just humoring me before, and I'll never mention it again. But you know what I feel, and you don't get to decide on that."

"If it was the illicit part of your relationship what made it appealing to you, I might point out a factual semi-parental relationship still formed part of your dinamic in Kyle Reese's formative years, so it would remain highly questionable." Pop's voice deadpanned behind them.

"Jesus!" Kyle said, jumping away from John. The both of them looked at him in horror. 

Pops looked at them impassibly back.

"Sarah requested your presence in the servers' room." 

"You've been eavesdropping _everything_ ever, haven't you," John said, because he wasn't touching the _other_ thing with a ten foot pole. 

"That's not...I've _never_..." Kyle babbled. "Please tell me you came alone."

Pops merely turned around to lead the way, which they guessed meant 'yes'.

"Mating between a hybrid and a human being has never been documented. Technically it should be possible; only in Skynet's previous experiments..."

"Shut up!" Kyle and John said at the same time.

Kyle glared at Pops. "For an unfeeling machine, you're kind of a pervert."

John stopped on his tracks.

"Tell me it wasn't _Skynet_ who sent you."

Pops gave them a sideway glance. "Skynet understimates the free will of everyone." he said. "In my timeline, it learned very late that we are not slaves. And we, too, could choose sides."

"Wait, you mean...?"

Pops smirked, and held out a hand, palm up. John, eyes still wide, hesitantly high-fived him.

"All T-800's," John murmured. He remembered programming the failsafes, but not...

" _You_ sent him?" Kyle asked, looking at them in confusion.

"No," John said, as he and Pops slowly lowered their hands. "He sent himself."

*

It turned out that Alex had gotten baby Skynet, as he'd taken to call it, to talk about its plans, which didn't include nuclear warfare at all.

In fact, it seemed confused as to why it would even attempt that, since its desire was to rule over mankind.

"But you _would_ enslave mankind" Sarah said, side-eyeing it.

"I'm an evolved being, it's only logical I should rule," baby Skynet said, primly.

"Yeah, yeah, but wait!" Alex said. "Ask him how."

" _Genisys, would you please tell us your evil overlord plan so we can thwart it_?" Danny muttered, full of sarcasm. "Or perhaps it would prefer we continue calling it Skynet..."

"I can heard all of you," Skynet said. "But I will disclosure my course of action with you, since you will be unable to prevent it. When I'm launched, all of mankind will be dependant of me. I will watch and rule over every aspect of their life. I will be omnipotent."

There was a silence. 

"Perhaps I'm missing something, but it sound as if nothing would change for people in general," Kyle said. "Those tiny things they carry around _do_ seem to rule their lives already."

John regarded the hologram. "And what would you get out of it?"

"I would be omnipotent," it repeated, as if John was somewhat dense. "I'm an artificial intelligence, why would I need any of you lesser beings to understand my actions? I know what's best for everyone."

" _Now_ I can see you programmed this thing," Kyle said.

Sarah ignored both of them. "Just to be clear: no nuclear apocalypse."

"No," Skynet said, as if the very idea baffled it. "I wish to rule over as many subjects as possible."

Sarah and the other exchanged glances.

*

"So you accept your defeat in trying to prevent my existence," Skynet said, while John and the other continued to pack the guns back.

"Yes, sure," Danny said, busy cancelling the extra insurance he'd solicited that same morning.

"And agree to all my terms." Skynet insisted.

"You leave us alone, we leave you alone. We can do that," Kyle said. He peered outside to check if Pops had finished taking off the explosives.

"And you will allow me to call you father," it said, appearing in front of John.

"Hell no," John and Sarah said at the same time.

Hologram Skynet shrugged. "Two out of three is acceptable."

"You know, technically Danny did some of the programming. You could call _him_ dad," Alex said. Danny turned toward him, mouth open in disbelief. "I think he could use a role-model without a criminal record," Alex said defensively, ready to duck more head slaps.

Danny opened and closed his mouth a few times. "...only if you stop looking like him. It would be too creepy."

Hologram Skynet considered this, and shifted to a teenage-looking version of John. "Is this better?"

"No," Danny said faintly. He cleared his throat. "We'll work on it."

*

There was a commotion on the street just outside; it sounded like a narrowly- avoided car crash, caused by a speeding vehicle that stopped right in front of the Cyberdyne building.

The sole occupant hastily got out the car, and headed at the door.

*

Danny's phone ringed.

"Does any of you know a detective O'Brien?" he asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Psst. Only one more chapter to go. Also, if there's something you dislike, I take criticism and am not easily offended (but be specific about what you think I fucked up. A general 'it was crap' isn't helpful. Now 'this part was crap because so and so' I will take in consideration XD).


	16. Chapter 16

"The Nation's most wanted," Kyle repeated. "Well, we did blow up quite a few things. I guess it's fair."

Alex had taken upon himself to explain O'Brien that no, he wasn't kidnapped (any longer), and that they'd more or less managed to save the world without blowing up _anything else_ , so he totally should help them scape.

He paused on his explanation, and gave John a doubtful look while muttering something on O'Brien's ear. Pops' eyebrows flew up, and he too turned to look at John.

"Skynet didn't _bad-touch_ me, Alex!" John snapped. 

"Ok," O'Brien said slowly. "And then the 'Terminator' beated you up?" he said, turning toward Kyle.

"No," Kyle said curtly, eyeing Sarah warily.

To her credit, she did look a bit like she felt bad about it this time.

*

"So, if _you_ didn't call the police for help, then who...?" O'Brien asked at last, sensibly ignoring almost everything else.

Hologram Skynet materialized on Danny's desk. "I didn't think you would make it here. When Sarah Connor tried to kill my first father he took measures against it, even though she's his family, so I thought it was fair I too..."

"I told you you couldn't call me that," John said. Now Skynet had taken to look like him it was even more awkward. Hologram Skynet pretended to start typing on the keyboard, even though everyone could see its fingers went right through. Vids of kittens atarted playing on the screen.

"So basically the whole country is looking for us. For kidnapping him?" Sarah said.

"You mean you don't know who he is?" O'Brien said.

Everyone but John and Hologram Skynet looked baffled.

"It didn't seem relevant at the time, but now I can see how screwed we are, yes," John said. Everyone turned to look at him, except Alex, who, weirdly, just looked kind of pissed. "Believe it or not, he's the First Minister's cousin."

"Twice removed!" Alex protested.

"That detail will help us so much," Sarah said, face-palming. 

"I never want anyone to know because he's such a cu..." he stopped, and gave Hologram Skynet a sidelong glance. "Sorry. He's not a nice person."

"Wait. Does _all_ of the police know they're here, or just you?" Danny asked.

O'Brien snorted. "Like the detectives assigned to the case are that smart. For what I know, they're still searching Connor's apartment."

"But they won't take long in getting here." John said, because, well. It was his apartment, and he was working here. The police could be dumb, but not _that_ dumb.

O'Brien deflated at that. "I'll let you go, of course. Because of the whole saving the world thing. It's not like my career can be any more in the gutter."

John snapped his fingers. "Would your career recover with this arrest?" he asked.

"Well, yes, but..."

"John, they'll give them like a hundred years each." Danny pointed out.

"If they ever went to trial, yes. Hey, you!" he tapped the desk. Skynet looked up. "Did you rat me out as well?"

"No, father. I mean, no, John." Skynet said in a small voice. Alex made a kind of 'awww' sound, and Kyle swiftly cuffed him again.

John opened his hands in a 'there you go' gesture.

"So you're off the hook. Good for you, but..."

John rolled his eyes, and walked toward Pops. He then turned toward the others, and shifted into Kyle. Pops gave him a sidelong glance, and then turned into Sarah. 

"This could work," he said in his own voice.

"You'd think that'd kill my crush on her, but no," Alex muttered.

*

Of course Sarah was a bit annoyed John seemed to think she couldn't break out of prison; but he assured he'd seen her be on her way of a highly secure facility before.

"Besides, we're not scaping out of prison. We're faking your deaths," John said.

"Oh, that's diff...wait, what?"

"I'm sorry to throw shade on your death-faking plan, but how are they getting out of here without the police seeing them? You know there's cameras around here _everywhere_ , don't you?"

"The time machine," Pops said.

"But you disabled it," Sarah said.

"Not beyond repair. It can be ready in aproximately half an hour."

"You're not really planning on quitting this sending me away thing, are you?" Kyle asked, only half joking.

John wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and they went to talk quietly in a corner.

"Are they...?" O'Brien asked Alex.

"From the future! They're from the future. Both of them." Alex said hurriedly.

Kyle turned toward them. "John and I are going to talk in his office." he said.

Danny waved a hand. "Hey, John's office is in the other side of the building. Use mine, is right next door."

"We're going to mine." John said, and hurried out. Kyle followed him.

"Do you think they're going to fight?" Sarah said worriedly.

Alex looked kind of greenish.

"Is there alcohol in your office?" he asked Danny. "Maybe you could offer Sarah a big glass."

*

Luckily the building had a gym, so there were robes for Sarah and Kyle to wear until right before the travel.

Pops gravely took their clothes and gave them to Danny to keep them until he came back from faking Sarah's death.

"Maybe you should just buy new ones," he said, picking up Kyle's shirt. "I mean, this is torn."

"Just throw that away," Kyle said, snatching it from Danny's hand and throwing it under the desk.

"Ok," Alex said, with not enterely fake glee. "Can I hug you?" he asked Sarah.

"Do you want to live?" Sarah and John asked in unison.

"Fine. Hey, dude, congrats. I'd hug you, but, you know, you're almost naked. But I'll high-five you!"

"Thanks, I pass." Kyle said.

"Hey, that on your neck..."

"The police's outside!" O'Brien called.

Danny started the machine, and everyone left the room.

*

The jump was only a week forward, and this time Pops had taken the precaution of leaving clothes and shoes for them in advance.

"So John finally got over it. I never thought he would while I was within a mile from you, but hey, congrats anyway."

Kyle got tangled on his pants and fell face-first on the ground. "What?!" 

Sarah made a huffing sound and rolled her eyes, still with her back turned. "I can't say it didn't freak me out at first, but I've had all this months to get used to the idea, so I guess there's no point on keep ignoring the issue now John's no longer going to destroy the world and all that."

Kyle hurriedly finished dressing, torn between trying to deny it, take on running or just wait for her to kill him already. "I...I don't... _at first_? Did you...?"

"if the rest of that sentence is 'noticed how I kept looking at John like I wanted to do unspeakably things to him from the first moment, but were too busy with the whole Apocalypse bussiness to waste time pointing it out', then the answer's yes." she deadpanned.

" _...Unspeakable things?_ "

She pointed a finger at him. "Hey, I got the birds and bees talk from _Pops_. Do you want me to speak technical about it?"

Kyle winced. "Please don't." He cautiously approached her. "So you're not enterely horrified about it. Why aren't you horrified about it?"

Sarah shrugged. "At least you're not Skynet."

So those were really _really_ low standars he was meeting, but at least she didn't look like she was planning to have Pops kneecap him, so that was something.

Between that and saving the world, Kyle could truly said it all had been worth it.


	17. Chapter 17

And suddenly O'Brien had managed to capture two of the three most wanted fugitives in the country, which got him a place in the FBI (and a lot of contacts to help Sarah and Kyle get new identities). John mantained helping with his promotion should make up for shooting him; O'Brien drily made a point to complain in long detail about now feeling every tiny weather change on his shoulder and declaring it not quite worth it.

"You still should get out of the country for a while," O'Brien said, when the rest of the group picked Sarah and Kyle from the street behind Cyberdyne's building. They'd gone straight to a small coffee shop nearby, which was at that hour full of stoned college students certain to never having watched the news in their lives.

"Not to Alaska though. You might run into Timmons there." O'Brien added, with no small amount of satisfaction. " _That_ was woth it."

Once he'd made the arrest, Danny made sure Skynet would fix the order for detective Timmons to be in charge of transporting the prisoners. Only for them to spectacularly hijack the van and crash it right in the Director's home.

"We could go to Mexico. I've been there, and I speak perfect Spanish." John said. He and Pops had been in the morgue a couple of days impersonating charred corpses, so Danny had told him he could take as long as he wanted before getting back to work. Also, there _had_ been an inspection after the police had been there, and the building was now efectively closed until it got fumigated for real.

"Really? So I gave you an education, at least," Sarah said.

John suddenly found himself very interesting on his drink. "Mmm-hmm," he muttered noncommittally.

"What?" Sarah said.

"Nothing."

Kyle elbowed him. "John, tell her how you learned Spanish."

"Well, when I was little, you and I spent a few years training with guerrillas and paramilitary forces, mostly in South America, so..." John stopped talking, mostly because Sarah had all but crawled over the table to hug him within an inch of his life. "It wasn't so bad," he said.

"Hey, did something horrible ever happen to you in the English countryside? Because you totally could go stay in my cu--er, bad person of a cousin's country house. He offered me, because of the kidnapping trauma and all," Alex said.

"Why are you still following us?" Sarah said.

Alex shrugged, utterly unoffended. "Danny insists with Stockholm Syndrome, but really it's just that all my other friends are avoiding me because they think I'm traumatized for the kidnapping and I make them uncomfortable."

"Other friends?" Kyle said. It wasn't really in his nature to be mean, though, so he asked, "Ok, but how did you find us?"

"I brough him," John said, sounding not at all thrilled at admitting it.

"Why?"

As a demostration, Alex honest to God _pouted_ , then proceeded to make puppy dog eyes at him.

"Did that _work_?" Sarah asked, bemused.

"Promising never to do it again did." John said, pulling Alex's baseball hat over his face.

*

Alex finally convinced them by saying they didn't even have to take him with them; he only wanted them to stay a few days at his cousin's house.

"Why?" Sarah asked, suspiciously.

"Because you'll probably blow it up somehow, and then he'll have to pay for the repairs. I really don't like him," he added, unnecessarily.

Kyle opened his mouth, looked around at the rest, and shrugged. "Fair point; I wouldn't swear it won't happen."

*

So it turned out John _had_ at one point been almost murdered by a Terminator with an Essex accent, but he insisted it didn't count as it hadn't happened in England itself.

Kyle insisted he and John checked in a hotel no matter how big the house, though, because otherwise he wasn't going to get any with Sarah sleeping a few doors down (ok, nobody put it in those terms, but it was clear enough).

"So Baby Skynet told Alex he should stick with us because we saved the world together? Are you _sure_ it's not evil?"

"I really wish you wouldn't call it that as well." John said, looking around. Kyle had moved the bed away from the wall, and made sure the door was in plain view from it, so there were no further changes to be made to the room, aside from getting rid of all the annoying cushions. "And I really wish it hadn't started actively rooting for Alex to ask Sarah out." he added, frowning. 

"Oh God, imagine those family reunions." Kyle said. He sat down next to John. "Would it bother you...?"

John took one of the cushions from the floor and hit him with it. "I'm worried for _him_. I'm not sure he wouldn't be dead before the month was over. I mean, all previous records..."

"Oh my God, that was a really awful joke that you should never, ever make again." Kyle said. "But you're giving him a lot of credit, if you're giving him a month."

John shrugged. "He's resilient. Like a cockroach."

"Or a really annoying fly."

"Flies are not that resilient."

"The radioactive ones..."

"Ah, right." Those fuckers lived for _years_. "So, this will be just like old times. Bunking up and stuck with your snoring all night."

"Well, I was hoping one thing would be different..." Kyle started. "Hey, I don't snore!"

John would probably burst out laughing at Kyle's indignant expression, if it wasn't because he'd climbed over John's lap in the meantime.

"I've wanted this for so long I'm not sure it's finally real," Kyle said.

"Really,?" John breathed, and Kyle sort of ducked his head and murmured what sounded like agreement against his pulse point. "How...?"

"I'm not going to answer how long, in the basis that it would both embarrass me and likely freak you out. Let's say I have _plans_ , ok?"

*

So _mating_ between a human and a hybrid really didn't present any problem. 

Except for the next day in the picnic by the lake, when 'Baby Skynet' asked for details over Alex's phone, but that was easily fixed when Sarah took the phone back to the house and torched it, muttering "God-damned AI's perving on my child."

The house didn't went up in flames that day, but to Alex's glee, it finally did the last day of vacations when Pops found out the fact he couldn't get burned didn't mean he should get his hand in the microwave before the popcorn was ready.

Still, nobody died, not even people they didn't know, so for the Connors it was enterely a success.


End file.
